Minting Coins Cost U.S. Taxpayers $436 Million: Chart of the Day

By Max Raskin and Ilan Kolet -
Feb 20, 2013

Pennies and nickels have cost more
than their face value to mint since 2006, resulting in a loss of
at least $436 million to U.S. taxpayers.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows that in 2012, the penny cost
almost 2 cents to make and the nickel more than 10 cents,
according to the U.S. Mint’s annual report released in January.
Those prices have almost doubled over the past seven years.

“If you look around in the budget, there aren’t a lot of
places you can find savings where you don’t cut a program and
you don’t raise anybody’s taxes and you can impact the
deficit,” said Jim Kolbe, a former Arizona congressman who
sponsored legislation to abolish the penny and dollar bill.
“This is one where you can do that.”

Neither of Kolbe’s bills, introduced in 2001 and 2006, made
it to a full congressional vote.

Re-evaluating production of the penny “is not going to be
a huge savings for government, but any time we’re spending more
money on something people don’t actually use, that’s an example
of something we should probably change,” President Barack Obama
said in a Feb. 14 virtual town-hall sponsored by Google Inc.
“The penny is an example of something I need legislation for;
and frankly, given all the big issues, we’re not able to get to
it.”

American lawmakers seeking a model need not look beyond the
Royal Canadian Mint, which stopped distributing pennies to
financial institutions on Feb. 4, saving C$11 million ($11
million) annually. The last Canadian cent was minted in May.